Chapter two

‘He will answer to his destiny and that is to be my son. One day, just one day!’ Asher felt the heart wrenching pain in his chest and he screamed and sat up on the bed. He was panting heavily and sweat caked on his forehead and drenched his back. He sniffled and glanced around; he was in his room in his father’s palace. Everywhere was dead silent and he wiped his hands on his face, breathing heavily.

He pushed the covers aside and climbed out of the bed. As always, he walked over to the window and stared at the moon before he went over to his closet and put on his running attires, jumping out of the window. He hasn’t gone far from the palace when he sensed someone behind him and stopped. He glanced around, there was no one around but he knew someone was there. After some seconds, he sighed and said, “good morning, dad.”

Edward chuckled and suddenly materialized in front of him. “Can’t sleep?”

“Dad, I have told you to stop doing that. I hate it when you are always around me but I can’t see you.”

“You are only complaining because you haven’t mastered how to do it yet. And plus, you always sense me because you are my son, others wouldn’t, not even the demon rulers.”

Asher rolled his eyes, “what are you doing here anyway?”

“You are not the only one that loves early morning run, son, have you forgotten?” Edward asked, his eyes twinkling under the moonlight. “What do you say? Should we race?”

Asher grinned, “oh, I would love that,” he said and they both took a stance, counted from three to one and sprinted into the woods. They were so fast that all that could be seen were just blurry vision. After three laps round the woods, they appeared where they started with Edward first and Asher three seconds later.

“Yep, I still got it,” Edward said, dusting imaginary dust from his grey coat, “still the fastest creature in the world.”

“Dad, you won by three seconds,” Asher said with a roll of his eyes.

“You didn’t beat it,” Edward said and he chuckled, yeah, he didn’t. He has never been able to outrun his father, no matter how fast he got. “Say, want to spar?”

“Oh, I have been dying to hear you ask that in a long time.” Asher said with his eyes glassy in adoration.

Edward chuckled, “why is that, don’t you travel to different packs searching for a challenger?”

“And which you know that I always win without even sweating. Please dad, let’s start already?” he said, taking his stance immediately and Edward stared at him with a raised eyebrow before he suddenly attacked, slamming him against a tree. “Not fair, I wasn’t ready,” Asher complained, getting up from the ground.

“Why, you already took a stance,” Edward said but Asher said nothing and just attacked. When their blows collided, a loud sound reverberated around them but they didn’t stay to talk about it and just released another blow that clashed. It was an intense fight that Asher ended up taking his beast form and Edward fought with his fire.

By the end of it, they were both lying on the ground and breathing heavily, at the end, they burst out laughing. Edward got up and dusted the dust on his coat while nodding, “I must say, you have gotten stronger from the last time we sparred. Do you have a secret teacher?” he asked, reaching up to pull him up.

“Ha-ha dad,” Asher said as he helped him up, “like you are not the best and only teacher I have ever had.”

“I know, I’m the strongest,” Edward bragged.

“Not for long,” Asher grinned.

“Ha, dream on,” Edward said and they both chuckled at it before slowly walking over to the palace. “Say, the blood moon would rise in three months, do you have hope this time?”

“And why do I feel like mom sent you to ask me this?” Asher asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Why would you think that? I am just genuinely concerned.”

“Dad, you don’t give a damn if I find my mate now or one thousand years later, so I know you. Mom on the other hand has become paranoid from my sixteenth birthday and my first blood moon night.”

Edward sighed with a smile, “you won’t blame her. It’s been nine blood moons since then and this year will make it ten, you can’t blame her for being worried since the wolves starts mating from sixteen years.”

“And that is one vital information she is missing dad. I am not just a werewolf, I am a nightwalker and a demon. The nightwalkers start mating from a hundred years which they are not likely to even find their mate and it can stretch on from two hundred to a thousand years. You didn’t find her till after two thousand years. If the truth be told, I am not worried about me because there is a reason to justify why I haven’t found mine, I am more worried about Anita. She has stayed as long as me but still no one and I have been hearing rumors going on about her which I don’t like. So mom should be more worried about her goddaughter than me.”

“She is worried about the both of you. Tell me, don’t you want to find her?”

“What is so special about finding her, I can pick up any girl I want. If I even want a ten-some, I can get it. They are a bunch of girls willing to be with me.”

Edward smiled and shook his head, “son, there is more to finding a mate than just sex. Now with this mentality of yours, I don’t even know how to explain it to you but I can tell you that when you find her, you would regret not knowing her all your life.”

“I don’t see anything good in having someone share a connection with me and I am constantly running off to save her even if it means endangering my own life. Seriously dad, I am not cut out for that. I know I will eventually find her someday, but to be honest, I am not looking forward to it.”

Edward chuckled, “ah, I never thought that I would birth a son who doesn’t believe in love.”

“I do believe in love dad, but when you are me, finding that is hard. Like, do you have any idea how many girls always line up to satisfy me? We all know that our kind always love mating to the strongest and it’s the same with the wolves, then talk about the demons. I am prince Asher, heir to the throne, everyone wants to be a queen.”

“Wow, what a way to analyze it,” Edward replied and by then, they were already in front of the palace. Without looking hard, they saw the young woman waiting for them in front of it and Edward sighed, “no matter how much you dislike being mated, don’t say it in front of your mother, it would break her heart to hear all the things you just said.”

“Wow,” Asher glanced at him, “is it just me or are you becoming softer with the years?”

“No, I am caring for my mate and her happiness, unlike you who doesn’t even want to find yours. Trust me son, when you find her, you will not only want to be connected with her, you would want to bury her inside you, to breath her in every single second. And about giving up your life to protect her, you won’t even know when you make the decision.” Edward touched his cheek with a smile before disappearing and appearing right in front of Aliyah. Asher watched them hug and kissed and he sighed, knowing that he has lied to his father. He does want to find his mate, like he looks forward to finding her every minute of the day, however, he has to hide his desire just so that his mother wouldn’t worry. The last thing he want was to have her more worried than she already was.

He had grown up seeing them love each other and he had looked forward to his sixteenth birthday and the blood moon night just so to find his, in other to have the kind of love they share. If it’s about giving up his life, he knew that will never be a problem, after all, he had heard tales about their sacrifices for each other and deep inside him, he could already feel that him and his mate would be sacrificing for one another as well. 

He stopped thinking when his mom beckoned him over and she kissed his forehead like she has been doing since he was child. Even though he was already a head taller than her, it never stopped her from pulling him down and still kissing his forehead and he knew that he would never get over that, not even when he would be a thousand years old.